Hundreds of applicants hope to compete in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) Lift Challenge, which is designed to transform drone operations with a deceptively simple goal: make ...

DARPA's first Lift Challenge was staged Aug. 8-9 at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Credit: DARPA/Paul Flacks DARPA’s Lift Challenge to drive the payload capabilities of ...

As military missions become more complicated, warfighters need more capable drones to use across diverse scenarios. The same also applies to civilian applications, like infrastructure inspection, ...

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) issued a challenge, the DARPA Lift Challenge, in October 2025 to develop novel drone designs that have greater payload-to-weight ratio. DARPA, which ...